Favorite Schools

Favorite Teams

President Obama's numbers suspect on the supposed gender gap in wages : William Cunion

Barack Obama

President Barack Obama delivers the State of Union address before a joint session of Congress in the House chamber Jan. 28, 2014, in Washington, as Vice President Joe Biden, and House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio, applaud. In 2009, during President ObamaÃ¢ÂÂs first address to a joint session of Congress, Republican Congressman Joe Wilson of South Carolina infamously shouted, Ã¢ÂÂYou lie!Ã¢ÂÂ while the President was speaking. While there is no excuse for being rude, I could sympathize as I watched last weekÃ¢ÂÂs State of the Union Address, writes William Cunion.
(Larry Downing, Associated Press)

Back in 2009, during President Barack Obama’s first address to a joint session of Congress, Republican Congressman Joe Wilson of South Carolina infamously shouted, “You lie!” while the president was speaking. While there is no excuse for being rude, I could sympathize as I watched last week’s State of the Union address. In fact, at one point, I could hardly restrain myself from shouting at the president through my television: “The fact you are presenting is way out of context and distorts the truth!”

You’ll be relieved to know that decorum prevailed, but I’m still annoyed by what he said:

“Today, women make up about half our workforce. But they still make 77 cents for every dollar a man earns. That is wrong, and in 2014, it’s an embarrassment. A woman deserves equal pay for equal work.”

He followed this with a one-liner that we need to do away with workplace policies that belong in a Mad Men episode, a witty reference that called to mind the days when those in power disrespected women by, you know, lying to them.

The 77-cents claim has survived for years in the face of contrary evidence, but in the event that no one has respected you enough to explain it: The number is derived by dividing the annual income of women who work full time ($37,791) into the annual income of men who work full time ($49.398), based on data from the U.S. Census Bureau for 2012. Quotient: 0.765.

That’s it. No controls for any variables of any kind (e.g., occupation, education levels, work history). That is not men and women standing next to each other doing the same job. To imply otherwise is wrong, and in 2014, it’s an embarrassment.

Still, no one was surprised when Democratic lawmakers stood and applauded.

The persistence of gender discrimination fits perfectly into their narrative – that the world is woefully unfair, and that its victims are forever dependent on government to remedy the problem. The narrative is the priority, and the facts must be presented in a way that fits it. Even areas of achievement are dropped from the story – did you hear Obama mention the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act? Nope. Not in the narrative.

We all know that the State of the Union Address has become more of a show than an act of governing, so why shouldn’t lawmakers play the role of spectators? They cheer for the home team and jeer the opponents – Joe Wilson should have just painted his face and made a sign.

Only it’s even worse than that. Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota told Politico that even her Republican colleagues stood and applauded the lines about the wage gap and Mad Men. That’s a whole new level of nonsense, driven by another narrative: The GOP storyline is that they need to win back female voters, so they must seize every opportunity to show that they “care” about women. Once again, we find that Republican lawmakers somehow manage, incredibly, to be even worse than Democratic ones. Hardly any Republicans will vote for the Paycheck Fairness Act. So why are they cheering? Another term for insincere pandering is lying.

Look, politicians lie, I get it. Even Honest Abe was pilloried in his own time for being dishonest, and that story about George Washington and the cherry tree – totally made up.

But government should not be pure theater, and elected officials don’t have to encourage dishonesty. Respect us enough not to applaud nonsense simply because it advances the plot.

Sen. Klobuchar doesn’t have to shout “you lie” to the president. But imagine for a moment if she had said this after the speech: “I agree with so much of the president’s agenda, and I was inspired by his ability to articulate our shared values. But I wish he had been more careful in describing the disparities in wages between men and women. By exaggerating the facts, he has made it more difficult for us to work collectively to address the problem.” How hard is that?

Hers would have become a household name overnight, and for a brief, wonderful moment, we might have felt hopeful about politics again. But in this political environment, that narrative isn’t just fiction – it’s fantasy.

William Cunion is the associate academic dean and associate professor of political science at the University of Mount Union in Alliance.

Follow Us

cleveland.com is powered by Plain Dealer Publishing Co. and Northeast Ohio Media Group. All rights reserved (About Us).The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Northeast Ohio Media Group LLC.